Yu Yu Hakusho (thing)

An anime series that recently started showing on Adult Swim, Cartoon Network's new show featuring cartoons and anime that are a bit too racy to show during normal viewing hours. It was one of the most popular anime of the early 90s (at least according to The Anime Encyclopedia), and totals 112 episodes. It is well-dosed with high powered action (think Dragonball Z here), but with good doses of truly funny humor, great lines (and good voice acting for the dub), and the hint of a love story to come.

There was also a Yu Yu Hakusho movie, which was released in the US as "Poltergeist Report" several years ago.

In any case, one day he is hit by a car saving the life of a young boy, and is killed. However, the people "upstairs" were not expecting this to happen to him so soon, and so he was given a second chance at life. He is led through his journey to come back to life by Botan, AKA the Grim Reaper. However, in this case, the Grim Reaper happens to be a young woman who wears a pink kimono and rides around on an oar. Why an oar? Because, like Charon, she collects people who have died and drops them off at the appropriate location (heaven/hell).

As I have only seen the first 4 episodes so far, and also I would hate to ruin the story for anyone, I will leave you with one final fun fact: The person who plays Botan's voice is the same woman who does Chi Chi in the English version of Dragonball Z (refering in this case to the later American dubs vs the early Canadian ones).

Update, Jun 2, 2002: Well, I've seen more of the series now, so I suppose I'll ruin some of it for the rest of you.

Yuusuke, with a great deal of trouble, manages to come back to life. He is recruited as a Spirit Detective by Botan (or more properly by Botan's boss). Basically this means that he has to recapture demons who have escaped from the underworld. You can probably see where this is going...